Unofficial news and tips about Google

January 29, 2009

Chrome's New Tab Page in Firefox

The latest update of Google Toolbar 5 for Firefox added the "new tab" page from Chrome. When you open a new tab, the page shows 9 thumbnails of the most frequently visited pages, recent bookmarks and pages from recently closed tabs.

Unlike the similar feature from Google Chrome, you can disable the page and you can remove the thumbnails you don't like.

The goal of "new tab" page is to present a list of pages you are likely to visit, but I'm not sure that it's actually useful. Opera's speed dial lets you pick the pages and this could be a better approach.

"The new tab page is the default starting point for all tabs - it is designed to get the user where they want to go, and is not meant to be an information resource like the user's home page; that is, the new tab page is not intended to be a destination, but rather a jumping-off point to other destinations - we strongly want to avoid cognitive load and distractions for the user, especially those creating new tabs for other purposes," explains Google.

If you like the feature from Chrome, but your main browser is Firefox, "new tab" page is now included in Google Toolbar. You can also try an extension that brings Opera's speed dial to Firefox.

Recent Bookmarks just seems pointless. I know what I just bookmarked. I don't know all the tabs that I closed so it would be better to have more info on that.

I don't find the Most Visited sites useful, but it's very Google to keep track of what you do and I don't see them replacing it with a dialer. I just hope we can hide it otherwise I'll have to continue browsing in privacy mode.

dlix, part of the point I'm sure is to keep you honest to yourself about where you spend your time. It seems to measure how often you open a specific link. I've just filed a suggestion to mind more which links I actually click on from that page. Next step could be to be able to block-out sites from appearing there.

The thing about Opera's speed dial that makes it great is not the 9 thumbs on a new tab, but the hotkeys to open any of those pages anytime. The thumbs are really just a graphical list showing what the hotkeys will open. I stopped using Opera because I was sick of issues with Google Reader, but unfortunately none of the Firefox extensions that imitate speed dial come with hotkeys. Or at least they didn't last time I checked.

yea, if your looking at porn often, the thumbnail page is not for you. For me, I didn't like it at first, but now I love it...the 'one click' when you open the browser/tab makes things faster..well in chrome that is, don't know about this toolbar in ff thing.

Thank you for rescuing me from embarrassing moments. My computer is a shared one with my other half and her family. I nearly had a heart attack because of this ridiculous intrusion of privacy, without my consent. Hmm, it is not what you are thinking(X sites). Financial info.

srsly GOOG...when I'm opening a new tab, it's not to go to one of the nine sites I frequently visit. For those, I type a few letters in the address bar & then click the url when it appears, or click on a bookmark. I don't need the tab to remind me where I usually go online.

where in your wrong-headed research did you get the idea that users want to see recently visited site thumbnails in a new tab? Do I really need to be reminded that GMail is my most visited site?

IMO this feature only makes sense (marginally) for a new window, upon first opening the browser. (assuming folks don't have a homepage set).

Wow, looking at all this, people hating chrome's features after 5 minutes is stupid. Have you not heard of Incognito Mode? I would think the extension would have it. It keeps no histroy, cookies, cache, anything. Ctrl+Shift+N on Chrome. Please just switch browsers all ready, Firefox isn't a good browser compared to Chrome or Opera.